Portuguese practice OODA Architecture have shared with us their fascinating entry to the Taiwan Conceptual Tower International Competition that won the team a Merit Award. The competition called for conceptual designs for "Taiwan Tower", a landmark building in Taichung to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the founding of Taiwan, R.O.C. and celebrate the merger between Taichung County and Taichung City.

This OODA submission was a collaboration with Spanish/American studio OOIIO. The design team comprised Diogo Brito, Rodrigo Vilas-Boas, Francisco Rugeroni, Joaquín Millán VIllamuelas, Alfredo Muñoz Herrero, Juan José Ortega López, and Sandra Sainz Vicente. The partners behind OODA are two young architects who spent some years working in Zaha Hadid Architects and OMA/Rem Koolhaas office.

The competition intention was to create a pioneering and innovative design concept which will stand as a new-age landmark and a symbolic voice to the world of Taiwan´s new spirit. The Tower was planned to be at least 300-meter high freestanding tower including offices for Taichung City Government, leisure and recreational functions, retail and educational centers and the new Museum of Taichung City Development.

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The concept form proposed links a Taiwan´s significant cutting industry (diamonds) with the required program and some inspirational features such as the Eiffel Tower (structure and icon), the Origami (folding process and symbol generation) and Taiwan´s star-look flag (identity).

The massing development had in consideration the need to become the most visual focus and the new gateway image for Taichung area, so the building perception is different from every corner and establish renewable relations with the city from within the building and from the outside context.

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The building has three distinct entrances (Museum, Tower and Offices) that are defined by three separated volumetric pieces that get unified in the first common sky Lobby above and create a public sheltered space below. On the central area is positioned the main functions (such as the Museum, Conference Centre, Fitness, Sky lobbies, Retail, Food and Beverage, etc) and on the peaks and the between areas is where we can find the offices, the sightseeing zones and the complementary functions.